


The Devil's Queen

by Aliena (ChokolatteJedi)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Apocalypse, Chess, Early Work, Future Fic, Gen, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-04-18
Updated: 2005-04-18
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/Aliena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hundreds of years in our future, a sibling rivalry as old as time will once again threaten to destroy all of mankind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Devil's Queen

**Author's Note:**

> I was doing a routine sweep through my computer looking for excess files to delete (Laur, you should be proud of me :D ) and found this story I had written for our school paper. I was one of the creative writing columnists last year and this was published in... I wanna say April.
> 
> Anyway, the wonderful Laur (mysweetkoinu) proofed this for me, so props again to her, and enjoy!

“Chent, what’s the word on those funky reports from the docks?” Chief Jathe Sandson tossed his coat on his chair before sitting and propping his feet on the edge of his desk. His sergeant handed him the relevant reports.

“Three fishermen report that the fish are intentionally avoiding their nets. We thought they were making excuses for slacking off, but a fourth was towed to shore claiming that the fish had purposely banded together and rammed a hole in his rowboat. Five dockmasters have sent word that the water level and temperature is rising.”

“Rising? By how much?”

“Average? 3 feet and 10 to 15 degrees.”

“What?”

“There’s more.”

“Do I want to know?”

Chent ignored his manager’s sarcasm and continued with his report. “Throughout downtown, there have been 11 sightings of huge winged beasts, each one confirmed by numerous witnesses. Streets are cracking in the lesser two boroughs and there are seven people claiming that one of the trees in Salent Park just rose on its roots and walked away.”

Jathe’s face had changed from frankly disbelieving to shocked. “Please tell me that is the end of your litany.”

Chent shook his head. “No sir. Animals are turning on their masters; hospitals are being flooded with patients who have been attacked. Voices and figures are being seen in the sky. The new complex of ‘sentient’ houses has completely shut down, as have two older complexes. The others are either reporting minor malfunctions or have not yet called in. And…” He paused, knowing that his next bit of news would be the least well received.

“And?” Jathe prompted.

“And we won’t be getting any more reports, because about five minutes ago the Soulnet went down and no one has been able to revive it.”

“What?” Jathe jumped to his feet, chair clattering to the floor unnoticed. “You mean we’re all cut off? No one can telepath with the Council of Eight? We’re each on our own?”

Chent nodded, finally letting the fear he felt show on his face. “Sir, permission to go home and check on my family?”

“They’re in the new complex?” Chent nodded. “And you can’t just Link with Macey or the kids?”

“No sir.”

“Fine, go. Let the rest of the station go too, we can’t do anything with the Soulnet down.”

“Yes sir.” The younger man practically ran from the office, calling out his news to the other officers waiting in the station.

Jathe reached deep inside himself, searching for the pulsing red glow in his mind that was the Soulnet. It was still there, but faint. Desperately he opened it, calling with all his might. _My Lord Draike? Councilmen? Can anyone hear me, anyone at all?_ But no answer came. He tried once more, screaming at the top of his mental lungs, but still there came no reply.

It was true then; the Soulnet really was shut down. Every citizen was now on their own; cut off from their neighbors and, more importantly, from the Council of Eight. No one alive could remember a time without the Council ruling through the Soulnet. The Council had been in place since the fourth world war, when Jathe’s great-grandfather had been the head of the police forces for Americana and her colonies. The position had been handed down through his family, along with the ability to sound the beacons that spread across the continent. Beacons that Jathe must now sound, since there was no answer from the Council’s citadel.

He strode out of his office and down the stairs, unlocking the reinforced steel door in the back corner of the basement. Completing the voice and password recognitions and palm and retina scans, he entered the control room for the mass alarm system. Jathe tugged at the cord around his neck, pulling a small silver object out of his shirt, one that would unlock and activate the emergency network for all of Americana.

He found the code for Angelus Metropolis and entered it before exiting, relocking the door behind him. Reaching the streets, Jathe heard the automated message echoing over the abandoned buildings. “A state of emergency has been declared by Chief Jathe Sandson, to be effective immediately in the Angelus Metropolis. Citizens are advised to leave the city in a calm and orderly fashion.” The mayday was repeated again and again as the other sentinel posts reacted.

The streets surrounding the station were already cleared of people, doubtless by the officers who had left earlier. Jathe, following his orders, walked down the empty city streets towards the towering shadow of the Citadel, to report to the Council if they could be found. He rounded a corner and was stopped by the sight of a woman standing before him, waiting.

She wore a black fitted business suit with a red handkerchief poking out of her pocket. Her eyes were heavily lined with mascara and her lips were the same bright red as the kerchief. Her raven-black hair was pulled into a pony tail that ended around her knees, held in place by a single blood-red ribbon, its ends mingling with the ebon hair to rest an inch above her black leather boots.

“Miss? Didn’t you hear the claxton? The city isn’t safe, you need to leave, or you’ll be in danger.”

Her cherry-red lips blossomed into a smile and she quirked one brow at him. “There’s more danger here for you than me, Jathe.” She purred. “And I have a proposition for you. My brother, Lucifer, has made a deal with your Council of Eight. If it is completed, he will have more power over me, and I just can’t let that happen.”

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Lucy. One half of the entity you know as the devil. If my dear brother’s plan is completed, then this world will belong to him, and all of earth will fall under his rule.”

Jathe blinked rapidly, trying to assimilate what he had heard. The world would end? His mind flipped back to the reports lying on his desk. Seas boiling and streets cracking certainly sounded apocalyptical, but- “Why would the Council of Eight make a deal with the devil?”

She chuckled. “Poor, honest Jathe. Men want power. The men who have the most power want even more. Look at Napoleon; look at Brutus. Your councilmen wanted the ultimate power, the power of Eternity. The Creator split the devil into two twins to keep us occupied fighting each other, and I cannot permit my brother to beat me in this gamble. You must help me, Jathe.”

“You want me to help you? But you’re the devil, well, half of it! What could you want with me?”

“I need you to play a game for me. The opening moves have been made, the pawns sacrificed, and now the real battle begins. I need you to be the queen space on my chessboard, as the Council of Eight is to my brother. Please.”

Jathe was wary of dealing with this woman, but hadn’t she practically said that the world would be destroyed if he didn’t? “I’ll do it.”

“Wonderful!” Lucy clapped her hands. “Just like your great-grandfather, willing to sacrifice himself for the common good!”

“What? What did my-” Jathe’s query was cut off by a booming voice that resonated through the deserted city.

“Bishop to D7.”

“Knight to E6.” another voice responded.

He looked up into the darkening sky, tinted red by the setting sun, but saw no one who could have spoken. Jathe was sure one of the voices must be Lucy’s, but he could not tell which and turned to ask her. “Which one…” But the girl was gone, leaving only an echo of a whisper in his ear.

“Go, Jathe, do what you will, just know that you will be moving in my game.”

The voices continued overhead, directing invisible troops through the sky above the City of Angles. Jathe wandered here and there, occasionally catching a fleeting glimpse of a person fleeing the destruction in the city.

“Rook takes Bishop.” At the player’s words, the streets shook and two buildings crumbled under the pressure. Jathe devoutly hoped that the voice had been Lucy’s, as he didn’t want to think about what would happen if some piece “took” him.

He continued his trek through the metropolis, stopping at one point to pick up a discarded jacket, as he was growing chilly from the oncoming darkness of night. “Queen takes Knight.” A voice spoke, and fireballs began shooting through the sky, banishing the dark with an eerie orange glow.

Jathe crossed Salent Park at one point, and wondered dimly if the moving tree had been a player in the demon twins' game. He spent a good hour trying to guess who the other pieces were while the voices continued their methodical destruction. “Knight takes Rook.” The voice that proclaimed this last move sounded almost gleeful, though Jathe was still unsure which twin it belonged to.

And then Jathe stopped in his tracks, blood running cold, as a single word sounded through the deserted night.

“Checkmate.”


End file.
